The Crossover podcast with Robertas Javtokas

In the seventh episode of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague’s new podcast, The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas, a true survivor and former champion whose elite-level career spanned 14 seasons and four countries, Robertas Javtokas, recounts his remarkable journey in basketball.

One of the few players to have won both a EuroLeague and EuroCup title, the latter as finals MVP, Javtokas is the current sports director of Zalgiris Kaunas, where he played the last six years of his career before retiring in the summer of 2017.

That career almost did not happen after he crashed his motorcycle at age 22 and needed more than a year to recover from a crushed thighbone, a broken shoulder and injuries to his knee and kidneys.

“A doctor said right away to me, ‘You’re done playing, it’s not possible’,” Javtokas said. “But there was not one person around me who said I wouldn’t play. Maybe they saw that I didn’t believe it, either.

“I was just working and I knew that sooner or later I was coming back. It was just a matter of time.”

With an hour-long format of exclusive one-on-one interviews, The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas goes well beyond the playing court with each podcast to delve into the life experiences that have made his guests who they are today – protagonists of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.

The Crossover has already featured David Blatt of Olympiacos Piraeus, Fabien Causeur of Real Madrid and Nick Calathes of Panathinaikos OPAP Athens, among others. The next edition will put Anthony Gill of Khimki Moscow Region in the chair next to Joe Arlauckas.